To end our series on curb appeal by guest blogger Kathyrn Prideaux – we cover pottery and potted plants. A simple grouping near your front door can make a big statement and show people that you love your home and you take care of it.

If you have the resources, we have a local company that can take care of everything for you! The Contained Gardner is an excellent resource for homeowners and businesses alike that enjoy the beauty of blooms and color in potted plants, but don’t have the time or desire to do all the work. Marylee Pangman is a friend and an inspiration – providing portable beauty to all of her clients!

If you are more interested in finding your own perfect display – our favorite retail pot suppliers (no pun intended!) are Pottery Blowout and Glazed Expressions. They offer an extensive selection of pottery in a huge array of colors, finishes, and sizes.

To get you thinking about some potted plant ideas – here are few images to inspire!

Here – a simple but bold statement is made – just through color!

In this example – repetition in both the pottery and the plants with an organic arrangement creates a beautiful scene!

For a modern look you can employ this technique – same plant & same pot a linear repeat.

Today, Prideaux Design continues their series on curb appeal…now covering exterior sconce lighting.

There are so many fantastic outdoor sconce options. The typical and most useful location for outdoor sconces include: next to your entry door, flanking  your entry door, above your entry door, or over your address numbers.

We love the lighting store Illuminations (http://www.illuminationstucson.com). They have an amazing range of lighting options for every budget. One of our favorite fixture options is the warehouse barn style.

There are many variations on this light and many are seen beside all kinds of great doors in the old Barrio district.

These lights come in an amazing array of colors and fixtures….so you can go wild, or keep it simple. These ANP (http://www.anplighting.com/colors) lights are available through Illuminations.

Another great source is BarnLight Electric (http://www.barnlightelectric.com/?utm_source=blog_network&utm_medium=logo&utm_campaign=Logo%2BRedirect). As you will see – there are endless combinations of arms and shades and options. There are so many applications for this series of lights…outdoors or in!

May your week be filled with light!

We thought we’d focus the second part of our curb appeal series on the front door. It is the focal of your entrance and can really make a statement about your home and the people that live there!

We found some great inspiration images….to help you consider what you want your front door to say!

This blog post begins a series of weekly blogs from guest blogger Kathryn Prideaux – thank you, Kathryn!

We are always trying to find new and simple ways to update the look of a home without breaking the bank. We thought we would share a few tricks of the trade for increasing the curb appeal of your home. Sometimes a simple change can really give your home a fresh look to come home to….a place where you are proud to pull into the driveway and call your own!

One great opportunity to show your personality and reflect the style of you and  your home is with your house numbers. We are partial to modern, clean design but only if that works for your home. Check out these great address numbers…and get inspired for some change!

One of our favorite resources is a company called Modern House Numbers. Consider removing your tired old ceramic tile house numbers….and replace them with these clean, simple, modern pieces. www.modernhousenumbers.com. This company is local! It is owned by a husband-wife team of architects in Tucson. So, not only are you giving your home a cool new edgy look, you are supporting a small local business. They also create mailbox and curb stencils.

For all of us who remember the movie “The Other Sister” with Juliet Lewis, we can’t forget the scene where they mouth “olive juice’ to each other and it looks like I love you. It was such a cute scene, however, when it comes to actual olive juice spewing out from the fruit that dropped off the tree, we definitely do NOT feel love or find it so cute. It gets all over the sidewalk, it stains the concrete red, the droppings are all over your yard and inevitably somebody steps on one or in the juice and they drag it into your home and onto your floor. So, no, many of us do not love olive juice.

Well guess what my friends, it is now the time of year to prevent that terrible scenario from becoming your reality.  The ideal time to spray olive trees and help minimize the flowering and fruiting of the trees is to spray them from early February to the end of March. Olive trees which are not treated produce an abundance of olives. This fruit is high in oil content and has a staining pigment. As the fruit ripens and drops to the ground it can create a horrible mess in yards and walkways, which can then be tracked indoors or in vehicles, ruining carpets and other surfaces.  In addition, there are many people who are allergic to the pollen these trees produce each Spring. To minimize these problems, many choose to spray their Olive trees with growth regulator that helps reduce both the pollen and fruit production of theses trees. It usually only requires one application annually, reducing the inconvenience and exposure.

So what should you do to and who should you call to have your tree’s sprayed?  You should call a qualified specialist to spray your trees. In order to apply a growth regulator,  Arizona law requires that Arizona Olive tree spraying applicators be tested and licensed. So prior to hiring a landscape company to spray your olive trees, makes sure that their applicators are licensed in Arizona, highly trained and experienced.

Remember there is no 100% guarantee control, however, when spraying is done at the right time, it does significantly help reduce the fruit and pollen from Olive trees.

With all the frost damage plants that Tucson was left with a few weeks ago, everybody is wondering what to do with them, how soon can they cut them back and how far? So Arcadia Landscape decided to give our crew members a refresher course on correct procedures to cutting back frost damage and when to start the pruning process. So before you take out your pruners and start chopping  away, we thought we would share a little bit of  information to help guide you.

The general rule is to wait until growing season starts, about late March to early April, and cut everything off to the new growth.  Some plants will need to be cut back to the ground. For plants that are normally cut back, such as the Red Bird of Paradise and Lantana, they can be cut back now. Obviously, dead or dying cacti that are rotting and smell can be cut back or removed.  Prickly Pear cacti pads that have fallen to the ground can be picked up and removed.

If you grow impatient and cannot take the looks of heavy frost damaged and cut it back too early, you run the risk of further damaging the plant or killing it completely if we have additional frost.  So fight the urge to go crazy with the pruners and don’t put away the frost cloth just yet…we could still have freezing temperatures until late March.

Here is a link we shared last week that we felt would be worth re-posting. If you have, concerns or doubts, give us a call and we would be happy to help direct you into the right direction.

http://www.amwua.org/pruning_frost.html

Being a Tucson, Arizona landscape company for over 27 years and having water feature installations as one of our landscaping services, we just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share these pictures our Vice President, Jan Marshall, took here in the good Ole’ Pueblo.

We hope you enjoy seeing these pictures as much as we did. Now after you are done staring in amazement, keep in mind tonight will be even colder. So make sure you protect your Arizona desert landscape by covering up your plants and protecting your backflow device.

Welcome to Arcadia Landscape’s new blog. Check back often for landscaping tips and ideas for keeping your Tucson landscape looking great year round. Of course if you want to set up a consultation for landscape design, landscape installation or landscape maintenance call our Tucson office at 520.791.0889.